


A Guide to Ghosts

by themadmage



Series: WTJWD-verse [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Metafiction, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 04:31:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17155355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themadmage/pseuds/themadmage
Summary: This is a summary of the lore that I'm using on ghosts for my Well That Just Won't Do universe. Not written as a narrative, and probably won't hold any interest if you aren't reading the series.





	A Guide to Ghosts

J. K. Rowling gave little information about ghosts in canon. I haven't looked into any information she gives on the topic on Pottermore or other extra sources, but I tend to cherry pick the information I like from those and ignore what I don't anyway. This is the lore and rules for ghosts that I am adhering to as I'm writing this series.

 

**General Information**

A ghost is an imprint of the soul of someone who has died. A person may leave a ghost behind for three reasons: unfinished business, a fear of the beyond/death, and the actual desire to become a ghost. If someone leaves a ghost behind, they do not pass on to the afterlife. A ghost that consciously chose to remain among the living is the most likely to celebrate their Death Day, as they often see it as a sort of rebirth. A ghost that remains because of unfinished business may pass on to the afterlife once their business is complete (if that is possible for their situation), after which there will no longer be a ghost. Because a ghost is an imprint of a soul, someone with a badly damaged soul cannot leave a ghost. 

A ghost must be bound to the living world. They can be bound to a person, place, or object. If they are bound to a place, they must stay there. If they are bound to a person or object, they must stay close to that. Bound to a person, the "leash" is about ten feet. Bound to an object, it's a bit longer. Most ghosts are bound to a place. A ghost who is bound to a person will either move on or cease to exist altogether when that person dies, depending on the ghost's willingness and ability to do so.

Muggles and Magical folk can all leave ghosts, but only magical ghosts are the fully-formed, fully-sentient apparitions seen in Harry Potter canon and in this story. Muggle ghosts are the type of thing seen on paranormal shows - orbs of light, disembodied voices, or unsteady images that come and go and repeat certain actions. 

Ghosts thoughts and emotions are more simplified than a living person's, but more complex than a magical portrait's. This simplification usually comes in the form of hyper-focusing, especially in the case of a ghost with unfinished business.

Ghosts are colorless-  whitish and transparent. They are just opaque enough to clearly see the definition of their features, but you can still see what is behind them. The ghost's appearance is the same as the body's appearance upon their death, including clothing. They are incorporeal, and can be passed through as easily as smoke in the air. The touch of a ghost is frigid cold. Only extreme effort from a ghost can effect the world around them, and then only to a minor degree. Ghosts can choose to become completely invisible at will, though someone passing through an invisible ghost would still feel the cold. Muggles cannot see, hear, or otherwise sense magical ghosts. Squibs can, just as a fully magical person can. 

 

 

**Specific Ghosts**

The Hogwarts ghosts are all bound to Hogwarts as a place. Most of them remained as ghosts either because of a fear of death (Prime example: the Bloody Baron, who felt he would be damned for killing Helena Ravenclaw) or because they consciously chose to remain (Prime example: Nearly Headless Nick, who probably always wanted to join the Headless Hunt and has an annual Death Day party). Moaning Myrtle remained because of unfinished business, namely revenge on her bullies, but wasn't able to gain the satisfaction she needed in order to pass on. Moaning Myrtle is also an example of the simplification of a ghost's emotions, as I refuse to believe she was always that emotional. However, because her unfinished business was focused on the people who hurt her, as a ghost she has become unable to focus on anything else. To see how a ghost can affect the environment in small ways, think of how Moaning Myrtle floods her bathroom when she is especially upset. 

The ghosts who attend Nearly Headless Nick's Death Day party are bound to places near Hogwarts, such as in Hogsmeade or old ruins that are now in the Forbidden Forest, or are bound to objects which can be moved to Hogwarts (either objects that conveniently move themselves, or that are sent by a living person at the request of the ghost). 

Voldemort will not be able to leave a ghost when he is eventually defeated, despite being a prime candidate for it with his massive fear of death, because of his horcruxes and the damage they caused to his soul. Even one horcrux would prevent a person from becoming a ghost.

Lily became a ghost because of unfinished business - namely, protecting and parenting her son because apparently no one else was going to do it. Because her unfinished business is something she can easily do, she will pass on at some point in Harry's life, after he has reached adulthood and found stability. I don't rightly know when that will be as I am writing this guide. In order to best complete her unfinished business, Lily is bound to Harry. She couldn't very well parent him if she were bound to the house in Godric's Hollow or some object in baby Harry's nursery. Lily's thoughts and emotions are hyper-focused on her love for Harry and doing the best she can for him as a parent. This has helped her, as it prevented her from being completely traumatized by her helplessness during the ten years on Privet Drive, where the Dursley family could not sense her because they are all muggles. Her main emotions all come from maternal instincts rather than concern for herself. In this universe, you often see Lily become invisible. She typically does this during Harry's classes to avoid being a distraction. She is still aware of what's happening around her, but others are less aware of her. The freezing cold of a ghost that usually puts people off has become a comforting sensation for Harry over the years, because since his infancy he has associated it with his mother and the small comforts she was able to give him while living with the Dursleys. If Harry were to die (which he won't, obviously, because he has main character immunity), Lily would move on as she would no longer have unfinished business. She wouldn't be happy about it, though.

 

**Ghost-Adjacent Entities**

Poltergeists are not ghosts. Poltergeists are manifestations of energy, especially magical energy. They are able to effect the world around them much more easily and have color. They can still become invisible. A poltergeist's strength, knowledge, and personality are determined by the energy they manifest from, but they are usually mischievous or malicious in nature. 

The Tom Riddle who came from the diary was not a ghost, but was similar in that he was from the soul. The difference is that he wasn't dead, and that he was gaining enough power by draining the life-force of the diary's owner to become corporeal and independent of the diary. He was in color, and was more able to manipulate his surroundings. He also had the ability to posses the diary's owner, which a ghost cannot do in this universe. 

The images produced by the Resurrection Stone when Harry used it in the Forbidden Forest in canon were not ghosts, but reflections of people who had fully passed on to the afterlife. They could not become invisible, or act on their environment at all. They were only bound to the living world temporarily by the power of the Resurrection Stone, rather than being fully bound to a person, place, or object like a ghost. 


End file.
